Hollywood Gays: Conversations With: Cary Grant, Liberace, Tony Perkins, Paul Lynde, Cesar Romero, Brad Davis, Randolph Scott, James Coco, William Haines, David lewis

Rating:
Summary: Another EVERYONE YOU KNOW IS GAY book by hack Hadleigh
Review: At a recent movie-watching party with friends, a number of whom are gay, a couple of the gay guests regaled themselves and, to a lesser extent, the rest of us with running commentary during the film, consisting of pointing out virtually every performer who appeared and shouting "He's gay!" It was funny at first, but after a while it just seemed desperate, especially when the fact that one or the other had heard "rumors" about so-and-so was used as conclusive evidence of that person's sexuality. So it is with Boze Hadleigh, who though never actually amusing does indeed seem desperate. Some of his subjects are/were clearly gay, but it's outside evidence that made it clear long before Hadleigh arrived. And some of his subjects are more likely wish-fulfillment for the author than verifiably one way or the other. Randolph Scott, with whom I corresponded for several years, would not even grant interviews to his friends seeking illumination on his film career, and hardly seems a candidate to come out to a muckraker like Hadleigh. And the Scott interview, like several of the others, is so stilted and knotted that it seems more likely to me that it's either imaginary or concocted out of re-contextualized remarks with little bearing on any actual interview that might (might) have occurred. As in all of Hadleigh's books in this subject area, he gives me the impression that he feels homosexuality must somehow be justified and that a good way to do it is to link as many famous people to the orientation as possible. But despite the fact that I don't believe the justification premise, I would have an easier time believing some of Hadleigh's interviews actually took place if some of the iffy subjects had simply made a straightforward statement. Reading Hadleigh's books, one gets the impression that he never interviewed anyone who wasn't suffering from terminal obfuscation. I so completely disbelieve his interviews that he almost succeeds in making me think Liberace was straight, if Boze Hadleigh says he wasn't.

Rating:
Summary: hadleigh's book fun, trashy
Review: Books like The Celluloid Closet and Hollywood Babylon abound with rumors about the sexual appetites of Hollywood stars. Boze Hadleigh's Gays in Hollywood, however, seeks to provide first-hand reports. An entertainment journalist since the 1960's, Hadleigh conducted volumes of off-the-record interviews with celebrities reputed to be gay or bisexual such as Cary Grant, Paul Lynde and Anthony Perkins, as well as less well-remembered actors like Randolph Scott and William Haines. In these interviews, often given only with the understanding that they would not be published during the star's life, Hadleigh attempts to get normally secretive actors to speak about their guarded sexual lives. The results vary widely, but even the "unsuccessful" interviews can be fascinating. Some stars like Paul Lynde, James Coco and Cesar Romero, speak freely and provide valuable accounts of what it was like to be gay in an industry filled with double lives and convenience marriages. Others like Cary Grant and Anthony Perkins are more elusive, but not without revelations about co-workers and peers. And one in particular is not so kind: at the end of his interview, an exceptionally ruffled Liberace expels Hadleigh from his mansion with imperial fury. Like his earlier volumes Conversations With My Elders and Lesbians in Hollywood, Hadleigh's work is somewhat journalistically suspect. He claims that for most of these interviews, he was not allowed to tape record or take notes, and frequently the questions seems stiltedly reconstructed and retroactively self-righteous. Still, the interviews are highly entertaining and provide an important alternative view of the film industry's social history. Recommended for both general readers and scholars of gay history / film studies.

Rating:
Summary: Hollywood Hogwash
Review: Boze Hadleigh strikes again with another slew of over-heated tete-a-tetes that tax credulity. Where is there ANY corroborating evidence--a snippet of a tape recording, a photo, a breathing body who was on the scene--that these cozy confessionals actually took place? Not in this book, which would have you believe that every closeted superstar over the past thirty years couldn't wait to babble into Hadleigh's ever-present microphone. Only in your dreams, Boze.

Rating:
Summary: A pack of lies
Review: Cary Grant was not gay and in fact married and fathered as child.
This book is typical of those that slander the dead because they cannot defend themselves.
Do not buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Who knows?
Review: I agree that it is hard to know whether to trust this book's veracity (I found the moment when Cary Grant hits on the author particularly hard to take).

But I'm more bothered by all the vitriol in these reviews, as though saying someone is gay is the worst thing in the world! There is a lot of evidence outside of this book that these actors were gay or bisexual, so it's not absurd to think they were. And certainly not an insult.

The book is a fun read, whether it's based on actual interviews or not. "Hollywood Lesbians" seemed somewhat more believable.

Rating:
Summary: Terrifying reading
Review: I found this collection of closety interviews fascinating -- and at times frightening. Particularly self-deluded and scary is Tony Perkins's bizarre conversation with Hadleigh. What a weirdo! Perkins can't seem to answer a question directly or honestly. Which is what made Charles Winecoff's biography of Perkins, SPLIT IMAGE, so disturbing -- the depths to which self-hate and fear can push a person. This is recommended reading.

Rating:
Summary: It was a good read.
Review: I liked it, yes, but, I liked "Hollywood Lesbians" a bit better. It is a wonderful premise, talking to stars about their homosexuality, but, I believe that it should not have been written unless it was a bit more revealing in it's topic. Kudos to Mr. Hadleigh who is a knowledgable writer. I would have liked to know more though (a lot was hidden even still. the reader is told this. that right there gave me a sign that all is not right with this book).

Rating:
Summary: It was a good read.
Review: I liked it, yes, but, I liked "Hollywood Lesbians" a bit better. It is a wonderful premise, talking to stars about their homosexuality, but, I believe that it should not have been written unless it was a bit more revealing in it's topic. Kudos to Mr. Hadleigh who is a knowledgable writer. I would have liked to know more though (a lot was hidden even still. the reader is told this. that right there gave me a sign that all is not right with this book).

Rating:
Summary: 1's too good;even an utter idiot wouldn't find it delightful
Review: I totally agree with previous reviewer on all points. (I could not bring myself to rating this DISGUSTING GARBAGE, I mean 1 is too good for it! ) Let me just re-state those points... Firstly, please, pay attention that all of the men mentioned in this book are already dead. Secondly, I do believe that all of the men mentioned in the book were "more or less gay" (and I do not mean bisexual...I mean those men, who ARE GAY, but can't fully admit it, even to themselves). However, I DO NOT SEE how and why would they be so frank with this pompous tiny man... Tony Perkins, for example, was never known for his good demeanor, especially towadrs journalists. Thirdly, author's complete lack of a writer's imagination is obvious, because ASOLUTELY ALL MEN SOUND ALIKE (now, who in their sound state of mind would believe that Tony Perkins, Cary Grant, James Coco, and say Liberace were so much alike in their personal manner of speaking and their opinions on various subjects? ) IT IS ABSURD. Last but not least, throughout all of the so-called conversations, the author keeps interrupting people that he is "conversing" with, just to show how smart he is or to insert yet another sleazy piece of gossip. Had he really done that, I believe, he would have been immediately shut off, if not by Cary Grant, then definitely by Tony Perkins, for doing that. However, the bit about 80-year-old Cary Grant putting moves on the author absolutely takes the cake among all other absurd and disgusting insinuations, I have read so far about gay men in Hollywood. After all that Grant had lived and seen, I am sure he would have had much better taste in men, if in nothing else... Anyway, this book is worst than any of today's tabloid rubbish. Therefore, I have two questions...Firstly, Why on earth anyone would want to publish that?(Answer: For money, of course, and that is sad... sad that we, as readers, get to read it). Secondly, is it even possible (apparently, it is! ) for the author to claim that such intimate conversations supposedly happened in the first place, and, then, to publish them (breaking, again, the supposed confidentiality) without any authorization from people mentioned and without any legal repercussions from the "victims" side? But, then again, those men are dead, so the garbage just keeps coming our way...

Rating:
Summary: A pack of lies
Review: I was fascinated by the idea of the book, though it is really a piece of trash, at its too-hollow core. I do love how Hadleigh includes mention of Weyland Flowers (of Weyland and Madame) and his pre-death heaviness, even with AIDS, with James Coco. The conversation with Flowers was to have happened at the end of the '80s, while the conversation with Coco, based on later comments, seemed to have happened EARLIER. Either it is bad writing (or editing), misleading the reader as to time sequence, or IT NEVER HAPPENED. It is so hard to believe most of what Hadleigh writes, particularly regarding a snuggly-snuggly in a limousine by (the very closeted) Cary Grant. My how the Hollywood hunks (and Paul Lynde and Coco) have a Boze fetish, it would seem. Maybe the studios should use him as a bargaining chip with SAG: less pay, bu more Boze. Who could resist?

Nastiness temporarily aside, the book certainly has a lurid appeal, but very little to lend it any shred of authenticity. Sell the transcript tapes, Hadleigh, and then you might have a believer in me. Until then, maybe you should just write autobiographical texts, as this is all the book seems to want to do, anyway. A personal touch in biography can certainly be interesting and illuminating, but not in the egomanical way presented here. If you want to sell your own life, political truisms and facts about your circumcision, Mr. Hadleigh, please do it within your own context, I beg you, and not within the star wrapping.